The Cost of the Commute

Blog Action Day put forth the idea that annually, they'd have a topic for every blogger to write about on a single day. Hopefully it could cause some good action, raise awareness, and have some positive impact. Yesterday was the first-ever Blog Action Day and the topic was "the environment."

I couldn't find enough time to write anything, but I have read a few stories today during lunch: Lifehacker discussses ideas for living greener, Six Apart's call to awareness and Feelance Switch made a funny.

But the one that really grabbed me is from the Shane & Peter, Inc Blog: save the world, work from home. It discusses just how much time is lost commuting (amongst other things). I know how much my commute costs, dollar-wise: about $45/week, or $180/month (my Explorer isn't the most fuel efficient, I know). But now I'm thinking about the time: 1 hour and 40 minutes each day, 8 hours and 20 minutes each week, 33 hours and 10 minutes each month! As the article says, that is basically a whole additional work week, just spent driving. Wow.

And that leads up to part of the dream, when uiNNOVATIONS has grown enough, and 33+ hours of commuting won't be a part of my routine any more.